Words,
whether they are abstract, vague, clear, social, personal, economic, religious
or political are powerful. Though they do not "break our bones," they are powerful enough to break our hearts ... or build them up, to keep a
nation united amidst strife or to create chaos and division.They have a way of echoing out into either
war or peace.Included
in this site are the homilies I have written down through the years.But the words here are not entirely mine.Some came from my teachers and students.Others reposted from the internet.But each came as a response to questions
raised or stories shared to me by unassuming yet inspiring writers (manunulat) or "reporters" (taga-ulat):children, old folks, vendors, street
sweepers, drivers, caregivers, teenagers, total strangers, single parents, my
family, friends and even those whose views are different and sometimes opposite
mine.My encounters with them made me
realize that their lives are the "sulat" (writings) and "ulat"
(reports) of the Word-made-flesh whose continued presence in our midst we often
fail to notice.As
you read the posts, may the words of Jesus, Who is, was and will always be, be
also written in your hearts.Godbless.Francis
Xavier R. Salcedo

Note: The Incarnation is the Christian mystery and the dogma of the Word
made Flesh. ln its technical sense the English word 'incarnation' was adopted, during
the twelfth century, from the Norman-French 'incarnation,' which in turn had taken the word
over from the Latin 'incarnatio.' The Latin Fathers from the fourth century like Jerome, Ambrose, Hillary, etc make common use of the word. The Latin 'incarnatio' (in: caro, flesh) corresponds to the Greek 'sarkosis,' or 'ensarkosis,' which were based on the words from John's gospel (1:14) 'kai ho Logos sarx egeneto,' "And the Word was made flesh". These two terms were in use by the Greek Fathers from the time of St. Irenæus--i.e. according to Harnack, A.D. 181-189 (cf. Irenaeus, "Adv.
Haer." III, 19, n. i.; Migne, VII, 939). The verb 'sarkousthai,' which means to be made
flesh, occurs in the creed of the Council of Nicaea (cf. Denzinger, "Enchiridion",
n. 86). In the language of the New Testament, flesh means, by 'synecdoche,' human nature
or man (cf. Luke 3:6; Romans 3:20).The Fathers now and then use the word 'henanthropesis,' the act of becoming man, to which correspond the terms 'inhumanatio,' used by some Latin Fathers, and 'menschwerdung,' current in German. The mystery of the Incarnation is expressed in Scripture by other terms: 'epilepsis,' the act of taking on a nature (Hebrews 2:16): 'epiphaneia,' appearance (2 Timothy 1:10); 'phanerosis hen sarki,' manifestation in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16); 'somatos katartismos,' the fitting of a body, what some Latin Fathers call 'incorporatio' (Hebrews 10:5); and 'kenosis,' the act of emptying one's self (Philippians 2:7).